be an early indicator of how the race is going. we have reporters covering both candidates. let's start with rita williams live in boston. that's where mitt romney's campaign is planning for a victory party. >> reporter: party planners have had to plan for any eventity, a tie, a win, or a loss. if there's a loss, they will turn the lights down real low and that confetti will, will you probably never see it. >> i'm just going to get the regular quarter pounder, without cheese. and a baked potato. >> now, mitt romney may not be very hungry tonight. and one of his last campaign stops today, he and his

runningmate paul ryan ordered fast food in cleveland in that important battleground state of ohio. polls show president obama had the tinyist of lead going into this election day. >> i expect it to be more tired. given the number of events and hours and i think i got energy for the people that i spent time with, whether at the rope line or the rallies. when you have ten thousand people cheering you, you get a real boost from it. >> now, let me show you this video. the plane carrying mitt romney landed here in boston. and the governor had just returned from that swing from a day of campaigning. romney and ryan, we are told at this moment are next door in a

hotel next to a convention center and president obama is in chicago waiting to see if he will get a second term and that where my colleague, ken pritchett. >> reporter: we are waiting fort arrival of his audience. thousands of people should be let in the doors in about an hour or so. they will be watching the returns hour by hour. we talked to democratic national communications brad woodall will be looking at as they try to gauge the outcome, the first focus is on virginia and florida. >> the northern virginia area and virginia, i mention those states because they are the first to have closed on the east coast in terms of the battleground states.

we will look at those areas where the president's numbers should be high in hoping that they actually are. specifically woodall says the campaign will be looking the early numbers in minorities, that could be a gauge for the night ahead. coming up, we will talk to the top democratic leader in the state of california who's attending tonight's event. that's attorney general harris in chicago. ken prichard, channel 2 news. getting results from back east. ken and heather are watching those with the latest returns. >> we have fight -- five states that brings mitt romney 3 electoral votes. indiana went to president obama four years but not this time,

mitt romney has been declared the winner of indiana, 55 to 45%. take a look at kentucky, another win for mitt romney, 59 to 41%. again, no surprises here. these are states that didn't turn out any differently than projected. >> let's take another look at another state and that is the state of west virginia, you can see with the five electoral votes going to mitt romney. if you look here, you can see south carolina went to mitt romney. no big surprises. we want to take to you vermont that went to president obama. that too was expected. if you take a look at the map where we are focusing on is ohio. mitt romney capturing the neighboring states. a key battleground state, continuing to monitor the results, coming in by the minute, watching ohio and

florida carefully. >> voters are voting on the legalizing of marijuana. this national trend and unusual one way this law enforcement has gotten involved in the campaign. >> another piece of history that could be made. one of these states could be the first to legalize recreational use of marijuana. the oregon measure legalizes and taxes marijuana and voters in washington are asked to regulate marijuana like alcohol. and in colorado the marijuana cowboy. >> this one says that it should be legalized. >> the war on drugs have been destructive and immoral policies since slavery. it has to go. >> campaigning for the colorado that would let marijuana be

sold and taxed. montana voters are asked to repeal the law passed years ago. the federal government is watching and unclear how drug enforcement officials would change their stance on medical marijuana enforcement if it passes. our political expert corry cook is back and talking about virginia, ohio and florida, the big three. does mitt romney have to win two out of those three to win the election. >> yes. it is conceivable that obama gets two of the three you can do the math. it is sort of threading a needle. the rest of country as you begin to call the states on the east coast and look at the map, a lot of the country is fixed and we are looking at the battleground states. >> when you were with us four

years ago covering the 2008 presidential election there was talk about enthusiasm and the country making history. while there's enthusiasm it is not the same. >> it is not the same. there has been talk about this enthusiasm gap, more enthusiasm around the republican nominee than president obama. a lot of disappointment, even among democratics. ways interesting is the turnout is high across the country. despite that enthusiasm gap, what we are seeing is that democratic turnout machine, obama spent a lot of money with identifying voters and with really targeting voters through micro targeting and ensuring they got to vote. we are seeing the consequences of that. >> do you think it is possible that we could have a split vote tonight with romney getting the popular vote and obama getting the electoral vote. >> it is possible. hurricane sandy changed the likelihood because a depressed turnout in new york and new jersey. the most likely outcome is alignment.

maybe a splitout come between the house and the senate and as you noted earlier divide government is most likely. >> we are updating the election returns, you see at the bottom of the screen, you can go to the bottom of the screen and look for our home page. our election day coverage continues. getting started when we get

back. on the ballot is governor brown's tax initiative to raise money for education. he went for a final push to get proposition 30 passed. amberly is in sack where -- sacramento where the governor

is scheduled to watch the returns. >> we are inside of the main ballroom in downtown sheraton in downtown sacramento. this is where the governor jerry brown and prop 30 are holding a watch party after the polls close at 8:00. workers have set up the decorations, signs and a podium. the governor spent the morning in oakland. he voted at a fire stationary his home. he held a press conference to try to get last minute report for prop 30. if passed. the statewide initiative will raise income and sales tacks to help prevent cuts to schools. if it fails, they say schools will face a 6 billion-dollar in cuts. opponents call it a shell game and say there's no guarantee that money will be use the for schools. back here live, we checked in with democratic party officials to see when the governor is scheduled to arrive at the party. they will only say sometime after 8:00. that is the latest from here.

amberly. ktvu. the social media world can set some records opinion your keeping an eye trends on facebook and tweeter. >> reporter: yes, there is a realtime tracker of how many people are voting, we are up to 7.5 million. of course this only reflects those that have told facebook they voted today. twitter reports it has had more than 11 million election related tweets and seeing 30,000 tweets a minute. that pace could pick up as we begin to see more results. in the last hour we showed you a tweet from ann romney and first lady michelle obama has been reaching out and we can see what she said. she tweeted this. all of our hard work these past 18 months comes down to what happens right now she says. let's not leave anything to chance. now some of these tweets are

written by campaign staffers but this one was actually signed with michelle obama's initials which is to indicate that she wrote it herself. now in the last hour, over on the gop side chairman of the republican party here in california. tom ballacarro seemed happy from the east coast results. expect a long night for california propositions. we want you to talk to us this election night and would like to hear from you. you can join the conversation by going to facebook.com/ktvu or find us on tweeter@ktvu. you can use the hatch tag, ktvu 2012 for that election conversation that we will be having tonight. we are continuing to track the latest election results, especially the results coming in, in some of the key states including virginia, florida and ohio. the presidential election could hinge on those results.

the latest numbers when we

return. we are live in san jose on what is on the minds of voters. >> this is one of the busiest times. we have seen the number drops

off. we will find a roomful of people tallying voters. 46% of those ballots have been returned. there are also several local issues, expanding card rooms in san jose to medical marijuana dispensaries and the minimum wage to be raised to ten dollars an hour. >> i voted against it. i think it is too much of a hike in a short period of time. i do think that this is an issue we need to address. >> the way things are nowadays, they will make it and i'm not sure $10 will do it but at least it is a start. >> you were saying again ... >> her vote and others are counted and placed in a bin and marked red. here they are not expecting as high of a turnout as they start from the last presidential election. some of the cars coming into

drop off ballots, the polls are open until 8:00 and any voter has until then to go to the votes or drop them off. we will be here all night covering the issues and have more later on. live in san jose, maureen kneeler, channel 2 news. polls in states on the east coast have been closed for about a half hour. we have updated returns. back we go to heather and ken. >> another state has been called and it goes to mitt romney, the state of oklahoma, 7 electoral votes going to mitt romney. next we have illinois going to president obama. winning 50%. let me explain something. i know folks are looking at the numbers, these are the raw data we are getting in, the associated press has went ahead and declared president obama the winner of illinois and those 20 electoral votes. indiana which president obama won four years ago, not tonight. the associated press now calling that race for mitt romney. heading over to kentucky.

no big surprise, it goes to mitt romney and it is an electoral vote and now to south carolina. another one for mitt romney tonight. he wins 90 electoral votes. >> no surprises so far. we want to keep you updated. it has not been declared yet. here is the latest numbers from ohio and president obama is leading mitt romney 58% to 42%. all we don't have the raw numbers but that state is declared for president obama. president obama has won connecticut and we move to the smaller states. only four in rhode island. that goes to president obama

and massachusetts that is mitt romney's home state and president obama has won. levy electoral votes. vermont, president obama has won that state. the state of maine has been declared a winner for president obama. this is one of only two states where they actually split up the electoral votes. president obama, we don't know how many of the four votes he has won so we can't say if this is a blue or red state yet. we will get the final numbers and they will be factored in. this is how it is shaping up and no surprises so far in this election. 270 electoral votes to win. right now mitt romney has 40, president obama has 61. this is the first time tonight that president is leading in electoral votes. >> we are getting new information on the election returns. you can go to ktvu.com for complete election results.

look for the election 2012 section. channel 2 news at five, our chief holes told us that warm weather like conditions will stick around for today. did they ever? >> a warm one, highs in the record range. 84 in santa rosa and above average temperatures. here is the deal starting to cool off by 7 degrees. as we get to thursday and friday maybe 30 degrees, as much as 30 degrees cooling on friday, the temperatures we have today. major cool down and showers in the forecast. here is how the computer model cease it. taking it through time. here is the fog at the coast. maybe the next hour you got fog back at ocean beach. fog back in pacifica and tomorrow afternoon the fog goes away in response to this. the leading edge of this cool air. it blows up the inversion. look at the time clock, thursday at 8:00 a.m., showers and cool air filtering in. a big temperature drop. here comes the showers.

noon on thursday. heavy rains? i think it is widely scattered showers. the next wave rolls in at 8:00 on thursday night. a stronger wave overnight thursday, maybe thunderstorms. winter weather advisories in the mountains. maybe snow in hamilton and maybe snow on diablo and certainlily low snow levels in sierra nevada. dropping down to 3000 feet. this is unusual to be this warm fast. forecast highs, you see 70s, 73 in fairfield and 73 in walnut creek. in the past 20 minutes, polls closed in two swing states, florida and new hampshire. more election results are coming into the ktvu newsroom, we will have the latest. >> the polls have closed in

ohio, probably the most closely watched, no republican has ever won the presidency without taking ohio. here are the current numbers with one percent of the precincts reporting. president obama up 58 to 42%

over mitt romney. >> now in the midst of the evening commute and people heading to the polls after work. let's go to john sacka. you are watching the activity at a precinct, right? >> reporter: yes, the traffic here has definitely picked up in the last hour as people have gotten off of work and come down to vote. you can see everybody around here. we are at the salvation army in

clayton. there are three different voting precincts in operation. people have been coming here all day since 7:00 this morning. i was told that when the workers got there, they had a line of people waiting to cast their ballots. the reasons why the people said they needed to vote in this election. >> after watching the debates and just seeing how close everything was, i just wanted to make sure i did my part. >> there are a lot of local issues that are on the measure on the ballot that i fell were important to speak to. i wanted to have my say about the death penalty. and the obvious, presidential election. >> now, one quick note about the voter makeup in the county. according to the county

elections division website, it shows that 556,000 registered voters are in this county and half are democrats and a quarter are republicans and over a quarter are listed. that's the latest, ktvu news. we will go to david stevenson live in san francisco. >> john, we are seeing it pick up here inside and outside city hall in the last hour in san francisco. take a look at the video we shot. this is really crunch time actually as commuters make their way home and make their way to the polls. a couple of twists in san francisco, redirecting here brought new lines and new polling places for some residents, that has led to more provisional ballots being cas because some voters were told don't want to leave their old polling place and arrangements are made for them to cas provisional ballots and turnout is being affected by a big

boost in vote by mail ballots being dropped off if he curb and inside the election office yet does not have a count on that. that's affecting turnout projections. and finally a new wrinkle in how the department will release data. we may explain that for candidates and for residents in san francisco. reporting live in san francisco, david stevenson. the senator, diane findstine had a thank you lunch, a private event at original joe's in north beach and spilled into a public area because so many were there. ed lee was there along with former mayor and willie brown. the senator is scheduled to speak at 8:30 tonight. we have new numbers from two states, back to heather and indicate. >> i want to update you, you can see tennessee has now been

called for mitt romney. no big surprise. he wins the state of tennessee 588% to barack obama's 42%. want to let you knee we are getting number from the state of new jersey. let's go ahead and take a look at those numbers. new jersey 14 electoral votes. you can see president obama trailing mitt romney in the state of new jersey. ken you want to take a look at other states. >> the ones we are paying attention to are ohio and virginia. so let's see where we are out in ohio, president obama leading 57% to 43% in ohio. very critical swing state in this election. we want to look at virginia as well. and that is where mitt romney is ahead of president obama but again, not all of the votes have been counted and in many cases these are absentee ballots or ballots from the part of the state that don't benefit the president. and another thing is that when you see these raw numbers, in some case where is we have called states that are red or

blue, that is because the ap is doing exit polls at the polling stations and getting their information and that's why they are being called even though you may not see a lot of numbers on the board and the votes have not come in. the ap is confident in those exit polls to make those decisions. >> if you take a look, you can see what polls predicted are playing out. president obama capturing connecticut. you can see mitt romney capturing south carolina, kentucky and tennessee. president obama leading mitt romney but a long night ahead. literally seconds ago, georgia was called for mitt romney. so we can put that in mitt romney's column, more election

coverage after the break. virginia, one of the closely watched swing states, mitt romney is in the lead, 158 to 42% for president obama. >> now to ohio, this was the subject of many visits by both candidates as late as today.

mitt romney went as did vice president joe biden with two precincts reporting, president obama has 58% leading to mitt romney 42%. >> finally florida, another key state in this race, right now it is a tie. 50 to 50 but with only one percent reporting. again, the rule of thumb here that's mitt romney really needs to win two out of the three of these big states, virginia, ohio and florida. >> for many students at the university of california, berkeley, this is their first time to vote in a presidential election and with expectations that the race will come down to the wire, there are plenty of people on campus keeping a close eye on the returns. we are live at the campus with a live report. debra. >> reporter: not hard to keep track of, a viewing part with a big screen. they have the popcorn machine and refreshments offered and a crowd has gathered. anyone that's walking by can

stop and watch. >> and the get out the vote effort has been going on all day. voting guides have been handed out and reminding students to vote. four years ago, huge turnout on college campuses put president obama in office. this time issues that affect students finances, seem to be motivating them to get to the polls. >> students know that obama will win this state and we had to get people off of the fence using the state proposition like telling them how important state propositions are to their education to the future of the uc system and to the price tag on their education. >> we have seen studies that show getting a text from a friends makes a person five percent more likely to vote. we are trying to contact as many people as we can. we have talked to 20,000 students and trying to get that number as high as we could get

before polls close. >> and one of the booths using this device. a big poster of ryan gos ling. he has nothing to do with the election but they thought it might pull the young woman voters over and remind them to vote and why they voted today. as you can see, the crowd here is healthy and plan to stay until midnight or beyond. part of the rich political tradition here at uc berkeley. one of california's experienced poll workers is being recognized. debra bowen had a ceremony to celebrate elisea kennedy's service. the 9 6-year-old has worked at a polling location since she was 33 back in 1949.

she talked about ways required to do this job. >> it has to be 100 perfect, no errors. >> no do-overs. >> no. and it is the experienced poll workers like mrs. kennedy that make it work smoothly. >> kennedy said that the secretary of state's office made a mistake in calculating her length of service. she received an award for 75 years but it is 63. >> president obama took time away from campaigning to offer young girl dating advice, this happened during an interview with a new hampshire television station. the girl said that her mom wouldn't date until she was 16, president obama said it is not easy being a parent and she should talk it through with her parents and the time will be right where there's nothing wrong with the young man coming by. we are keeping a close eye on the social media world buzzing all day about the election and picking up steam.

in the newsroom we are keeping an eye on the trends on facebook and twitter. >> mitt romney and president obama are making a final push by urging people online to get out there and vote. you mention how things are too close to call in florida . take a look from the president. he said if you are waiting to vote in florida, stay in line as long as your in line. you can still vote. take a look at this photo from nicole on twitter. we have been seeing this with i vote the stickers. she said i quote the for my daughter's future and my little peanut will be here and i want to make the best decisions for her. you can join the conversation by

going to facebook.com/ktvu. we are just more than 20 minutes away from polls closing in 14 states including the battleground states of colorado and wisconsin. as we get results we will share them with you in two minutes. they'll want to put up numbers from indiana with 39% of the precinct reporting mitt romney is the winner, this is not a surprise, he was expected to carry indiana.

a look now at the electoral map. president obama with 65 electoral votes and mitt romney with 58. no surprises. what we are really waiting on here are several key swing states. we have been talking about them including ohio and virginia. and ken and heather are back now taking a closer look. >> frank, we want to start you off with ohio. millions of dollars, $260 million has been spent here. thousands of miles long by both candidates. as you can see in the incorporate part of the state, cleveland, auto manufacturing, auto parts, the voters expect it to play well for obama. in the southern part, that's where you have the coal minding industry and a lot of people

are upset about the declining jobs. it will be interesting to see that. 7million voters here. a lot of voters, 18 electoral votes in ohio. again another thing, we want to look at how the state went four years ago. it went to president obama, 52% to john mccain 47%. something else that we are monitoring is the demographics, predominantly white, 81%. 3% hispanic and 12% black in the state of ohio. one other thing, 7% unemployment, i mention those decline in jobs. again unemployment big here but actually this is below the national average of 7.9%. so a lot of things that voters in this key swing state of ohio are contemplating. of course they closed there two hours ago. >> and we will take a look at virginia, this is the new south, virginia and north carolina. this part of country is changing dramatically and one of the reasons is because of

the influx of people moving in for jobs. i am having trouble opening up virginia. we may have to skip that right now. virginia is one of the key states. 13 electoral votes in virginia. the northern part of the state is right outside of washington d.c. talking about fairfax county, a lot of government workers that live in this area, a lot of younger affluent more demo graphically part of the state. virginia beach and norfolk, the largest navy base, a lot of mill. a lot of african-americans that live in this part. richmond has a large african- american population and in the western part of the state, out here in the appalachian mountains, a lot more rural and a lot of white conservative part, bible part of virginia.

that's the dynamic voters. last time president obama won virginia, the first time a democrat has captured virginia since 1954. beat john mccain. he is hoping for a repeat performance. 64% white and 19 percent african-american in virginia. and a fairly significant hispanic population. in virginia the unemployment rate is 5.9%. a lot of government workers and one of the thing that mitt romney is talking about is reducing the size of government. that could put a lot of the workers out of jobs. that might be considered when they head to the polls. >> we are keeping a close eye on ohio, virginia and as well as florida. we will have much more on the returns coming up in a moment. >> the presidential race is the big draw. house and senate races across the country hang in the balance. scott mcfarland joins us live with some of the key races and

what results could mean for the white house. the entire house up for re- election, 435 seats and poised to remain in republican hands. the senate up for a third of election and poised to remain in democratic hands. even the most dedicated of insiders are watching what you are about to see. this live pick of boston, the romney headquarters, the biggest insiders of capitol hill. let's go behind closed doors. inside republican headquarters, near dc, the phone banks open after dark. volunteers and go p aids trying to swing the remaining undecided voters on the west coast for congressional races. so many california house races competitive because of the state's redirecting. >> in the last decade, the 53 seats in california, 265 elections and 53 times 5 and only one time has a seat

changed party hands. now we are likely to see for the next decade, 8, 9, 10 competitive districts a year. >> the southern california sued, the fight between two long time democratic incumbents howard burrman and brad sherman. control of the senate at stake. 53 democrats. and 47 republicans. the gop has a narrow path to regaining the majority but it doesn't look likely according to insiders in washington. live tonight, scott mcfarland. in. >> poms have now closed in five key battleground states, virginia, ohio, north carolina, new hampshire and florida. we are in the newsroom with a look at the states and how people are handling the pressure. >> the states are close with enough electoral college votes to matter.

earlier we talked with voters in ohio who love or hate the national spotlight. >> we have been in this battleground high state situation where all eyes are on cuyahoga county. >> it has been a headache. the social media network and everything. cleveland polls showing less than 3 points between the presidential candidates, 8 electoral votes. virginia with a virtual dead heat and 13 electoral votes, another purple state, neither red or blue and florida, the biggest of the swing states, 29 electoral college votes where governor romney has held a steady lead in late polling. heavy turnout and long lines. one we haven't talked about is wisconsin where president obama held a narrow four point polling lead, ten electoral votes are up for grabs and the republicans have made a strong

push as they have in nevada where there's six electoral college votes and narrowly for mr. obama but it is a late target for the republican party. reporting live, ktvu, channel 2 news. now to bill martin, our chief meteorologist. we will start to see changes. >> yes, right now, the leading edge of the fog and pushing on shore. the fog begins the cool down tomorrow. temperatures tomorrow down ten degrees, temperatures drop further as we head into thursday. another five or ten degrees. temperatures coming down. out of the 80s and even some 90s down towards the gil roy area. it will be cool. fog along the coast. tomorrow is cooler but not a bad day. sun like this, a few clouds out there but then everything changes around as we get into your thursday as the letting edge of the system and there's the fog tomorrow. it comes in and a cold front, and they call it that because behind it is the cool air. is that front goes through, here comes cold air, not typical, but it is a high

latitude storm near the gulf of alaska. coming down chilly air for this time of year. that is why you have winter weather advisory. snow levels could go 3000 feet. that's low for this time of year. >> as we go thursday at lunchtime, a few showers. not a watch out, widely scattered showers. it will be a little sun and break and showers. here we go to another shower activity thursday at eight and then late thursday night and friday morning, showers. that's the system and the cool air lingers for friday morning and saturday morning. the forecast highs tomorrow then not as warm as they were today. certainly warmer than you might expect for this time of year but not as warm as today. five to ten degrees cooler. the five-day forecast in the bay area weekend. bull's-eye cooler wet, weekend it dries up and warmer. >> and we are continuing to track results from today's election, more coverage when we

return. >> first let's look at what is happening in maryland. president obama with 76% to mitt romney's 24%. the pollless close in colorado, wisconsin and michigan in a couple minutes.

back after this break.

>> getting more results. heather will start us out in the south. the associated press called the state of alabama for mitt romney. alabama has 90 electoral notes capturing 54% of the vote compared to president obama 46's percent. 726,000 votes for mitt romney compared to president obama 496,000. these are early numbers with only 12% of the precincts. georgia in its 16 electoral votes to go to mitt romney tonight. let's go ahead and move here to tennessee. another state for mitt romney. he captures 57% of the vote compared to barack obama's 43% and we go to oklahoma. we got numbers in for this state. you can see mitt romney winning the state of oklahoma capturing 7 electoral votes. >> these are states that have not been declared. we want to show you what is

happening. michigan is where mitt romney is from but it is the auto capital of the country. right now president obama is leading mitt romney in michigan, 53% to 47%. still very early in this race to talk about who is going to win. we move to pennsylvania, this is leaning towards president obama and we want to show you what the numbers are right now. president obama has a very slim lead, just two points but leading mitt romney and there are 20 electoral votes, a pivotal state. one that obama is counting on winning but in just the last few days, mitt romney actually appeared in pittsburgh and was buying ads for pennsylvania trying to make it competitive and new hampshire, this is in mitt romney's backyard, part of the blond media market and mitt romney has a vacation home but right now president obama is leading mitt romney 62% to 38% in new hampshire. finallily to new jersey which was hit hard by super storm

sandy. and there are concerns about the get out to vote effort because people obviously without power and a lot of issues they had to deal with. mitt romney in the early voting is leading president obama 55% to 45% and one of the complaints among some of the republican operatives is that the republican governor in new jersey chris christie was giving a lot of credit and praise to president obama for his handling of the hurricane situation in new jersey and they thought that might be helping the president in this campaign. right now as it stands, these states right now are still too early to call the states that you see are highlighted in red and blue and have been call by the associated press. we are still waiting for virginia, ohio, florida, three monster swing states that have a lot to say about what is going to happen. >> we have been monitoring the results and will update them for you and have more lacks coverage coming up. poms in california close in two hours. we will be here all night

giving you results. our election coverage continues in two minutes. we have new numbers. >> new numbers from virginia, 48% of the precincts reporting mitt romney in the lead, 54 to 46%. this is a crucial swing state. >> and we keep going back to it. the newest number force ohio. with five percent of precincts reporting, we have president obama coming win 56% of the vote and mitt romney with 44% and each candidate spending hundreds of millions of dollars to get the vote in the battleground state. >> and lastly we will be at the number, 50- 50, we will update and back with more coverage, just getting started here.

it is six p.m. here. here is where the race for the white house stands. president obama has 65 electoral votes and president obama with 76 votes. 270 is the magic number. the polls are still open for two more hours, but there are 14 states where the polls